Are people born gay or do they choose to be gay?

Jan 12, 2016

There has been a loud roar from the LGBT community, asking local government bodies to legalize same sex relationships and marriages. While gay marriages have legalized this, much to the joy of the gay community, others still consider such marriages as against norms of nature and morally unthinkable.

What does science say about homosexuality and being gay?

Various twin and adoption studies have shown that homosexuality do have a genetic element associated with them. Some studies have shown that a gay man is likelier to have a biological gay brother. On the other hand, lesbians are more likely to have a lesbian sister than a straight woman.

A study conducted in 1993, the results of which were published in the journal Science showed that families that had two gay siblings were found to have a mutated X chromosome known as the Xq28. In addition, various independent studies have talked about the ‘alcoholism gene’ and the ‘warrior gene’, which makes people become alcoholics or naturally aggressive respectively.

While genes do affect a person’s behavior according to diverse conditions, they cannot have complete control over the person. In addition to genes, the environment too tends to have a significant impact on how the person behaves. For instance, when children are growing in an environment where others are aggressive, they tend to mould in that way. On the other hand, when you come from a culture that forbids consumption of alcohol, it will be difficult for you to turn into an alcoholic, regardless of how the body metabolizes liquor.

Your environment also affects your sexual and romantic relationship. Therefore, it can be said that your environment, along with the genetic makeup can have a significant impact on what you find desirable and what you find undesirable.

Structure of the brain and Being Gay

A study, whose results were published in 1991, established the fact that the hypothalamus in gay men is different from that present in straight men. For those unaware, hypothalamus controls the release of the sex hormone from the pituitary gland. It was found that the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus was twice as large in heterosexual men in comparison with homosexual men.

Another study conducted in 2008 highlighted the fact that the two halves of the brain are more symmetrical in heterosexual women and homosexual men than in homosexual women and heterosexual men. Some studies have also indicated that homosexual men and women were likelier to be left – handed or ambidextrous compared to their straight counterparts.

Various studies on rats have also proven that exposure to sex hormones in the womb during a specific period of brain development may influence sexual orientation of the baby. By manipulating the levels of sex hormone that the rats were exposed to, scientists made them to exhibit homosexual behavior later on.